Lancome L’Absolu Creme de Brilliance: Review, Photos, Swatches

This Spring, Lancome released eight shades of their newest lipgloss, L’Absolu Creme de Brilliance ($29.00 each). According to Lancome, Creme de Brilliance is a cross between lip gloss and balm designed to deliver “intense hydration that helps lips stay comfortable for up to 10 hours.” It contains “shine-boosting oils” and “light-diffusing pearls” for richer color pay off; Pro-Xylane™ for increased hydration, and glycerin and hyaluronic acid to hydrate lips and help color stay put.

Like you, fancy ingredient names don’t mean anything at first. I typically don’t even read the press release or description in its entirety until after I’ve tried it. (I prefer to try things as I would normally… diving in head-first, not caring about the science behind it, and just getting down to business!) Then I go back and read the product’s description, check out tips or insight on the website, etc. to see if my experience lines up with what the product was supposed to do.

Creme de Brilliance is definitely a cross between gloss and balm. I didn’t make that bridge myself, as I was thinking maybe it was more like a glossy lip stain, but the balm part makes sense. It’s glossy and liquid enough to pass for a gloss, but it’s thin and sort of melts into lips. It doesn’t impart an ultra glossy finish (which is more a preference than a necessity). The gloss isn’t drying, but I don’t think it’s particularly moisturizing either — it just doesn’t suck moisture out of your lips while you wear it and keeps it locked in, so your lips don’t dry out, but you should make sure your lips are moisturized prior to applying for best results.

The applicator is the same as most (all? can’t remember!) as Lancome glosses – a modified doe-foot applicator (always reminds me of a heart for some reason). I felt like the scent on these is very low-key–kind of a rosy scent, but it’s not nearly as strong as other Lancome lip products. I’m not loving the price —

Amande Sucree is a neutral chocolate brown with bronzy shimmer. I found this one applied beautifully on lips–completely opaque and lush.

Berry Noir is a creamy berry red with subtle silverish shimmer (but it’s very, very subtle, as you can tell from the swatch). This one really feels and looks like a stain (in fact, I think it stained my lips for about five hours!). Not quite as opaque as Amande Sucree, it’s still mostly full color coverage. On me, the redness of it certainly stands out, but there is still enough berry to keep it from being purely red. This had a creamier look with a glossier finish.

Blush Classique is a brightened up medium pink with shimmer. This brightened, yellower-toned pink is a pretty spring shade that goes on nearly opaque and is one of the more shimmery shades.

Champagne is a cooler toned medium pink with silvery-pink and gold shimmer. Side-by-side, Blush Classique and Champagne are similar, but I think the warmth/coolness of each is apparent. Do you need both? Probably not unless you’re a pink fiend! Not too cool, so still wearable by a variety of skin tones, Champagne applies mostly opaque and has the same shimmery look as Blush Classique.

Cherrywood Luxe is a coppery brown with subtle gold shimmer. This was an interesting shade, just because it’s not quite brown, but it’s not really a red-brown, so I went with coppery at the end of the day. I found this one to be a little streaky in application, whereas the other seven shades applied very evenly without much work. Cherrywood Luxe has a glossy sheen and shimmer like most glosses.

Exotic Orchid is a plummy pink with pinky-gold shimmer. This is a creamier but still glossy shade of plummed down pink. It’s pink enough that it’s not a true plum, but there’s enough plum in it that mutes the pink tones of it and darkens it a bit. It has an almost iridescent fuchsia shimmer in it.

Rose Mythique is a brightened cherry red with gold shimmer. Like Exotic Orchid, this is a creamier shade with a glossy finish. It has less noticeable shimmer–just a few bits of gold shimmer. This is the shade that Kate Winslet is wearing in the Creme de Brilliance promo (though there is also a lipstick shown in the advertisement, just to be clear). It’s not a true cherry red when applied to my lips–it’s more like a cherry stain. The color does make me feel like I have “juicy” lips, ha! Funny enough, Rose Mythique may be one of the lesser pigmented shades of the eight.

Sienne Ultime is a more muted, darkened red (with maybe a little brown) with soft gold shimmer. This is actually much more pigmented than Rose Mythique and redder, too, though still not a true red. Like the majority of the shades, this provided nearly opaque color coverage on my lips. (You can still see my lip freckle but barely.)

Which are your favorites?

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Product: 27/30

Value: 8/10

Ease of Use: 4/5

Packaging: 4/5

Recommendation: If you love pigmented gloss that’s not too glossy and locks moisture in, you might like these!